CVE-2026-98955

Published Oct 23, 2026

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: flow_dissector: avoid u16 truncation of skb->len when computing thoff __skb_flow_dissect() computes key_control->thoff using: key_control->thoff = min_t(u16, nhoff, skb ? skb->len : hlen); min_t(u16, ...) casts both arguments to u16 before comparing them. Whenever skb->len (or hlen) modulo 65536 is smaller than nhoff, the truncated length wins and thoff is set to a bogus small value, even when the dissection succeeded. For example, an IPv4/TCP frame with skb->len == 65540 and nhoff == 34 gets thoff == 4, so callers such as skb_probe_transport_header() point the transport header inside the Ethernet header. Such skbs are not exotic: - At the time of commit d0c081b49137 ("flow_dissector: properly cap thoff field"), AF_PACKET with PACKET_VNET_HDR could already build GSO skbs larger than 64KB (MTU checks are skipped for GSO, and alloc_skb_with_frags() accepted up to MAX_SKB_FRAGS (17) order-0 pages on top of the linear part). - BIG TCP now makes skbs larger than 64KB common. - The following patch makes tun_get_user() dissect IFF_TAP frames before eth_type_trans() pulls the Ethernet header, so a GSO frame carrying a 65522..65535 byte L3 packet will be dissected with skb->len in [65536, 65549]. Compare as u32 instead. If the resulting offset cannot be represented in the u16 key_control->thoff, cap it to U16_MAX and report the dissection as failed rather than silently returning a wrong transport offset. thoff is still set on failure, as some callers (such as eth_get_headlen()) use it regardless of the return value.

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References

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-98955? +
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: flow_dissector: avoid u16 truncation of skb->len when computing thoff __skb_flow_dissect() computes key_control->thoff using: key_control->thoff = min_t(u16, nhoff, skb ? skb->len : hlen); min_t(u16, ...) casts both arguments to u16 before comparing them. Whenever skb->len (or hlen) modulo 65536 is smaller than nhoff, the truncated length wins and thoff is set to a bogus small value, even when the dissection succeeded. For example, an IPv4/TCP frame with skb->len == 65540 and nhoff == 34 gets thoff == 4, so callers such as skb_probe_transport_header() point the transport header inside the Ethernet header. Such skbs are not exotic: - At the time of commit d0c081b49137 ("flow_dissector: properly cap thoff field"), AF_PACKET with PACKET_VNET_HDR could already build GSO skbs larger than 64KB (MTU checks are skipped for GSO, and alloc_skb_with_frags() accepted up to MAX_SKB_FRAGS (17) order-0 pages on top of the linear part). - BIG TCP now makes skbs larger than 64KB common. - The following patch makes tun_get_user() dissect IFF_TAP frames before eth_type_trans() pulls the Ethernet header, so a GSO frame carrying a 65522..65535 byte L3 packet will be dissected with skb->len in [65536, 65549]. Compare as u32 instead. If the resulting offset cannot be represented in the u16 key_control->thoff, cap it to U16_MAX and report the dissection as failed rather than silently returning a wrong transport offset. thoff is still set on failure, as some callers (such as eth_get_headlen()) use it regardless of the return value.
How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-98955? +
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